Nuns

Brendan McKennedy (the.tourist@mailexcite.com)
Mon, 22 Dec 1997 00:18:00 -0700 

In keeping with the holiday season, I thought I'd maybe bring up a new topic, although
it's probably an old topic.

I recently reread De Daumier-Smith, and I was thinking about young Jean in love with
the nun, and I was reminded of Holden's sort of confused affinity for the younger
nun in the train station.  

I realize the Jean's infatuation was a product of his loneliness, reaching out for
people, but why a nun?  For the same reasons as Holden?, who I think was attracted
to the nun (attracted in a VERY loose sense of the word) because of her assumed Innocence.


Holden was a little confused by the nun because of her passion for Romeo and Juliet,
but I think that confusion allowed him to identify with her a little bit--her access
to darker or more passionate emotions while trying to remain innocent.

I think Jean's identification was similar.  Here was a nun who, he thought, had touched
on the subject of Mary Magdelane--she of the iffy relationship with Jesus, he the
Western manifestation of innocence. (A case could be made that the Virgin was that
manifestation, although I happen to believe that she was a deliberate manifestation
of the pagan Mother/Fertility goddesses.)  

While Jean was a professed enthusiast of Buddhism, and Holden was no such thing,
I think they're both essentially looking for the Eastern contact in a world of Christianity
and Loss Of Innocence.  It's no mistake (is anything with Salinger?) that Catcher
takes place around Christmas--and indeed, Holden questions some tenets of Christianity--though
more often the tenets of Christians themselves.  I think Holden, through the nuns,
is perhaps testing the waters of Christianity for identification, for a trace of
his own value system.  Does he find it?  It might seem so, from his reaction to the
nuns, but all it does is confuse him more.

Jean is an American maybe-Buddhist living with Japanese Presbyterians, a grand paradox,
and he's seeking himself in a nun. 

I don't know.  Is this too complex a question for our Holy Solstice season?
If no one feels like discussing this now, or if no one is around to not feel like
discussing it, then I'll repost this at a later date.
I'm one of those massochists who likes to spend my school vacations Learning Something.


Happy Bean-King Day, everyone.
Brendan
 



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